


By such and such an offering

by middlemarch



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Childhood Memories, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-22 21:19:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8301463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: She was his favorite.





	

Had she been seven or eight? Mary didn’t think she’d been as old as nine when Carson, (under duress, mind you, and he’d never admit it) taught her a little bit about Cockney rhyming slang on a rainy day when both Edith and Sybil had been confined to bed with la grippe. It had enchanted Mary, who’d always liked puzzles but was bored with the jigsaws Nanny kept shoving at her. Carson might seem imposing, foreboding even, to the staff, and in those days footmen quaked at his approach, but Mary had always felt perfectly at ease with the butler and hadn’t hesitated to ask what he’d say for “I want a hug.” It had taken only a moment, for him to announce in his serious, basso-profundo, “milk-jug, milady, so milk.” From then on, whether she was teasing or in earnest, she hadn’t hesitated to ask for milk when she needed comfort and he had always willingly obliged.

The day they were informed of Matthew’s injuries, without any sense of whether he could recover, Mary had managed to sit still enough for Anna to dress her hair and had not shed a tear, had not been late to a meal. Carson looked at he usually did, no sign that the day was any different from any other, but as she let herself fall into her seat at the table, he had brought her a tall cut-glass tumbler filled with milk on a silver tray and had only said “Milady.” She’d taken in from the tray with a shaking hand and set it beside her tea-cup, ignoring the confused expressions on the faces across from her. She finished it by the end of the meal and risked a glance at Carson’s eyes as she left the room. Nothing else needed to be said.

**Author's Note:**

> This was an impromptu gift on Tumblr for broadwaybaggins who needed a hug. Look up Cockney rhyming slang-- I did my best but it wasn't the work of the ages.
> 
> The title is from Emily Dickinson.


End file.
